We reached out to Koei Tecmo America to see if this delay would affect the western release of Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists. Koei Tecmo had this to say:

As far as the western release window, Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists’ western release is still scheduled for Early 2019. An official release date announcement will be made in the coming weeks.

Even though Early 2019 is a previously confirmed and fairly broad window, the fact that a release date will be revealed “in the coming weeks” should give western fans some peace-of-mind, even if it does come a bit later than originally expected. While delays are never fun, fans of the Atelier series in Japan won’t have to wait too much longer to get their hands on the final product. We’ll be sure to keep you in the loop as updates revolving around Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists come about.

If you’re unfamiliar with this title, it’s based on the popular and long-running Atelier series that originated on the first PlayStation. There are 19 games in the mainline series and they all revolve around alchemy. Atelier refers to a “workshop” of sorts in French.

With 19 entries in a JRPG series, you can be sure to find some spinoffs and Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists is just that. This particular spinoff has players building their own city. You’ll play as a character named Nelke von Lestamm, who surprisingly… isn’t an alchemist. Characters from the mainline games will also be making an appearance in Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists adding some sense of continuity to the title.

Again, Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists: Ateliers of the New World will be launching in Japan on January 31 for PS4, PS Vita, Nintendo Switch, and PC. You can pre-order the localized version of the game right now via Amazon if you haven’t already.

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Jordan Boyd is a Staff Writer at DualShockers, specializing in indie games, RPGs and shooting titles. He's majoring in journalism at Stony Brook University on Long Island. During the 7th console generation, Jordan faced a crippling blow with the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines that scarred him for life.